I have a feeling that after the utter, Best-Korea-like economic shambles of the "Communist" era, Romania got off to an almost irredeemably bad start being "free". I heard that whole families were basically living in the streets making a living off of crime and begging, and I'm sure that thousands of emotionally and morally stunted adults emerged from the sterile orphanages that were Ceaucescu's legacy. And I doubt there's much money to be made there in legitimate hard work. So yeah I'm not surprised that internet scamming is big business there.

In the late 80s there was a big push towards computer science by the communist regime. I know that because starting in 1st grade I had the opportunity to go to computer classes every day in the afternoon for 2-3 hours to learn programming.

I left the country when I was 12 in the 90s but people kept pushing computer science even after the communist regime. Fast forward 10 years and you have a lot of kids that know programming very well (highschools and colleges were geared for that) and no jobs for most of them. Romanian is the second most spoken language at Microsoft so that should tell you something about the quality of programmers from that area.

Of course, not everyone could leave the country and find good paying jobs in the West and the allure of dollars for 16-18 year olds is too much especially when all they have to do is sit behind a computer.

One of the scams in the 90s was using mail order catalogues like Eastbay. Steal credit card numbers, order a ton of merchandise shipped to addresses in US or Europe and then forward the merchandise to Romania to sell.

I have been to Romania twice (under Ceausescu) and found it the most corrupt country I have ever been to. It makes Nigeria look like Switzerland. That said if you know how to work the corruption it can be a great place.To think the fall of communism eradicates corruption is the most absurd notion I have ever heard. Corruption existed long before Marx, Lenin, or Mao.

spawn73:fappomatic: bucket_pup: Maybe we should "accidentally" drop a nuke there. Seems like one well-placed one would do the trick.

/// just saying.

I'd endorse a fast-moving expeditionary force composed of US Marines . Just in case they have crude oil. Ya'll.

I think Romania has a real army, so I'm thinking that would end in gypsies and fail.

Mmmm, from watching the history channel, I know Hitler got oil from Romania, so they have that as well.

Romania was on the side of the Axis till Aug 23rd 1944. At the time Romania was ruled by a political party that was more right wing than the Nazis (if you can believe that). Germany actually told Romania to slow down the killings of jews and gypsies. Link

I did a paper on the conficker virus for my computer security class for my MBA, I looked at it from an economic and legal point of view instead of technical.

I did some calculations that even if they rented out the Conficker botnet for pennies a computer they made something like 20 times the average yearly Romanian wage. (Can't remember the exact numbers and at work right now so I can't pull it up).

Romania doesn't have extradition treaties with the US, so as long as they don't commit a computer crime against a Romanian citizen they have no fear of being arrested.

Win-Win situation.

/Is it just me or do all previously communist countries corrupt as all hell?

shortymac:I did a paper on the conficker virus for my computer security class for my MBA, I looked at it from an economic and legal point of view instead of technical.

I did some calculations that even if they rented out the Conficker botnet for pennies a computer they made something like 20 times the average yearly Romanian wage. (Can't remember the exact numbers and at work right now so I can't pull it up).

Heck, you can contract out other parts of the operation too: Don't have a network of mules to transfer funds back to Europe? You can hire them. Can't code? You can buy a kit to run on your rented botnet. Just get anything you need at an online marketplace. It's an amazing (and often scary) industry.

/Is it just me or do all previously communist countries corrupt as all hell?

In a highly authoritarian/bureaucratic state, corruption is seen as the only way to get ahead, or simply avoid being a victim of circumstances. It is seen as simply survival skills. Even in US culture, we regard a person's ability to "cut through red tape" as a good thing. This is just the extreme version of that mindset.